Use of telematics: On Board Truck Computers

This ought to get good,....................

 

No driver like "Big Brother" watching over his or her shoulder,...

I am tracked and timed more than any other transportation company in the country,..

I manage just fine,....However I get to go home after my shift ends,...If I were living in a truck I would not tolerate the level of intrusiveness company's subject drivers to these days,..

 

Well my last job had PeopleNet + Elogs.

One particular annoying thing I had from PeopleNet was my company would send so many messages with Generic Titles such as "Dis Jan. 1730". Basically it came from Dispatch with a Date and Time so if I wanted to find information like a Phone # from and old message I'd have to sift through them till I found the right one.

So my recommendation is find a way to give unique titles to messages saying what they are.

(I actually liked Qualcomm more because the messaging was just simpler)

 

Not 100% sure what you mean by on board computers. I am assuming a qualcom type system. One company I worked for had about every electronic device you could imagine. It showed if you unhooked trailer, rpm data, speed data, idle time, any hard braking occurence, rollover/reduce speed alerts, camera's in trailers. Plus forward warning system, side warning system, lane departure control, electronic logs and smart shift auto/shift transmission. The safety dept guy had some of the data (like hard braking and rollover/reduce speed warnings) set up to send him alerts via text on his cell in case he was away from his desk and qualcom. I had a couple drivers tell me they got calls from him in the middle of the night. Technology has put a ring in the nose's of drivers which is what the government wants and wholeheartedly endorses. There is no "freedom of the road" left for medium and large sized company drivers anymore. If someone had told me a few years ago trucking would be where is is now I would have laughed. Its a shame that companies spend a fortune on equipment and personnel just to micro manage and somehow screw their drivers out of a nickel instead of giving a bit more money to them. You're welcome, lol.

 

How about we install Big Brother in the cars and homes of all the trucking execs? After all the truck is basically a drivers home while he's working... let's see how these folks like the intrusive nature of these deals...

 

I had a QC unit in my two expeditor trucks... I was comfortable with the deal as I got my load offers over the system and it wasn't too complicated.

The only ##### I had was having the 'travel agent' keep pestering me when I was napping... we had tight delivery schedules to meet but I'd always take a nap at night but the #### thing would keep asking 'why aren't you moving?'.... 'look at where I am you DA..... I'm two hours ahead of schedule!'...